Lubricating apparatus.



A. FLANIGAN. LUBRICTING APPARATUS. APPLICATION FILM APR.5,1915.

l,73,656 Patented Fein 29, i916.

ATTORNEY UNITED STATES PATENT GFFICE.

ARCHIBALD FLANIGAN, OF SEATTLE, WASHINGTON.

LUBRICATING APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 29, 1916.

Application led April 5, 1915. Serial No. 19,249.

To all whom 'it may concern Be it known that I, ARCHIBALD FLANIGAN, citizen of the United States, residing at Seattle, in the county of King and State of Washington, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Lubricating Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements 1n lubricating apparatus for applying lubricants to moving parts of machinery, and the object of my improvements is to provide apparatus which shall be adapted automatically to transfer' lubricating material from a storage container to a delivery receptacle and to force a flow of such material from said delivery receptacle to a desired point, in such amounts and at such frequency as may be required, in response to the operation of a hand lever, and which shall b e especially adapted to apply greasy lubricants of a consistency like tallow or lard as well as lubricants of a more fluid like character, as thick mineral oil; and a further object of my improvement is' to provide a lubricating apparatus which may be applied to a railway car. as a trolley car of a street railway, and which shall be adapted to be operated by the motorman of such car to deposit a thick greasy lubricant to the flangesl of the front wheels of such car at required times, as when such car is about to travel around a curved portion of a railway track, thus to lubricate the outer side surface of the flange of such front wheel to reduce the friction and abrasion of such surface and of the inner surface of a guard rail with which it engages in its travel around such curve, and to distribute a portion of such lubricant along the inner surface of such guard rail whereby the flanges of the other wheels of such car, which come in Contact with such guard rail, may be lubricated. I accomplish these objects by devices illustrated inthe accompanying drawings wherein- Figure 1 illustrates parts of my invention, by a view in side elevation, as applied to a railway car, a fragment of whose body is indicated in vertical longitudinal section and whose front truck is shown in side elevation; Fig. 2 is a plan view on an enlarged scale of parts of the same, together with a view in horizontal mid-section on broken line of Fig. 2 of other parts of the same; and Fig. 3 is a sectional view on broken line y, y of Fig. 1 of details of my invention.

Referring to the drawings, throughout which like reference numerals indicate like parts, a container 5, preferably of sheet metal, is provided with a bung hole Within which is a removable screw-threaded plug 6 and through which bung hole lubricants may be introduced into said container 5, and is further provided with a small vent hole 7 which extends through its cylindrical wall at a point on the same longitudinal line with the plug 6, and with an outlet nipple 8 disposed in one of its end walls adjacent to the lowermost portion of its periphery when said container 5 is in its normal position with its bung-hole uppermost, as more clearly indicated in Fig. 1, where said container 5 is shown as disposed to rest on a bracket 9 secured to the underside of the front end of a car 10. Attached to said outlet nipple 8 is one end of a flexible conduit 11 whose other end is attached to an outlet check-valve 12 which is connected to a nipple 13 that extends through the cylindrical wall of a cylindrically formed delivery receptacle 14 at the outlet end thereof. Extending through the end wall 15 of the delivery end of said receptacle 14 is an outlet nipple 16 to which is connected an outlet check-valve 17, and connected with the outer end of said outlet checkvalve 17 is a nozzle 18 which is formed to adapt it to extend to a point adjacent to and above a peripheral portion of the flange 19 of a car-wheel 20 whereby a lubricant may find passageway from said delivery receptacle 14 to drop on to said flange 19.

Within the cylindrically formed receptacle 14 is a closely fitted piston 21 which is adapted to be movable lengthwise therein, and disposed between said piston 21 and the end wall 15 is a strong helical compression spring 22 whose force tends to maintain said piston 21 in a position adjacent to the other end wall 23 of said receptacle 14, and eX- tending outwardly through the central portion of said end wall 23 is a nipple 24 through which air maybe forced to pass into said receptacle 14 to cause said piston 21 to move toward said end walll against the pressure of said helical spring 22 and through which air may be permitted to escape from said receptacle 14 to permit said herical spring to force said piston 21 to move back toward Said end wall 23 of said receptacle 14. Said delivery receptacle 14 is secured by brackets 25 to the top surface of the front end of the truck frame 26 of the car 10, as more clearly shown in Fig. 1, and to said nipple 24 is connected one end of a flexible conduit 27 whose other end is connected with a pipe 28 which extends upwardly through the floor of the car 10 to connect with a three-way valve 29 to which is connected another pipe 30 which extends downwardly through the floor of the car 10 thence rearwardly to connect with a tank 31 which may be secured to the bottom of the car 10 by suitable means not shown.

The tank 31 is adapted by suitable means, not shown, alwavs to be charged with compressed air; and the three-way valve 29, as more clearly shown in Fig. 3, is provided with an inlet passageway to which is connected the pipe 30 and an outlet passageway to which is connected the pipe 28 and a passageway 32 through which air may escape from the pipe 28.

The rotatable cock of the valve 29 is provided with a chamber 33, from which holes 34, 35 and 36 extend to its periphery, and with ar hand lever 37 whereby said rotary cock may be rotatively moved to the position indicated in Fig. 3, to close the passageway 32 and thepassageways through the pipes 28 and 30 and whereby said hand lever 37 mav be moved to swing to the position indicated by dotted lines 38 to cause the passageways 34 and 35 to register, respectively, with the passageway 32 and the passageway through the pipe 28 while the passageway through the pipe 30 is closed (thus to permit air from the receptacle 14 to escape through the passageway 32) and, further, whereby said hand lever 37 may be moved to swing to the position indicated by dotted lines 39 to cause the passageways 34 and 36 to register with the passageways through the pipes 28 and 30, respectively, and to close the passageway 32 whereby compressed air may flow from the tank 31 to the receptacle 14.

Obviously, in the operation of my apparatus, when its parts are associated in the manner illustrated and described, the container 5 being filled with a desired lubricant and the tank 31 being charged with compressed air, (the hand lever 37 being disposed in the position indicated by the dotted lines 38 in Fig. 3) the hand lever 37 is first turned to the position indicated by dottedlines 39 to admit compressed air from the tank 31 into the receptacle 14 to force the piston 21 to move to the end of the receptacle 14 adjacent to its end wall 15 in opposition to the force of the helical spring 22 and thereupon said hand lever 37 is moved to the position indicated by dotted lines 38, to close the pipe 30 and to permit the air to escape from the receptacle 14 through the pipe 28 and the passageways 35, 34 and 32 thus to permit the helical spring 22 to force the piston 21 back to a point adjacent to the end wall 23 with the result that the checkvalve 17 will be closed while the check- 29 until the operator desires to lubricate the liange 19 of the wheel 20, whereupon he will move the hand lever 37 to the position indicated by the dotted lines 39, in Fig. 3, to admit compressed air into the receptacle 14 to force the piston 21 toward the end wall 15 to cause the check-valve 12 to close and to cause the lubricant to open the check-valve 17 to flow therethrough and through the nozzle 18 to drop on to the ange 19 for a suflicient length of time to lubricate such flange 19 sufficiently whereupon the hand lever 37 is moved back to the position shown by full lines in Fig. 3, there to remain until it is again desired to further lubricate said ange 19 when the operation of forcing the piston 21 farther toward the end wall 15 1s repeated; and when the lubricant in the receptacle 14 is consumed such receptacle 14 may again be filled from the container 5 by turning the hand lever 37 to the position shown by dotted lines 38, to permit the escape of air from the receptacle 14, thus to allow the helical spring 22 to actuate the piston 21 to draw lubricant from the container 5 again to fill the receptacle 14 in the manner hereinbefore described.

Manifestly, my invention may be employed to lubricate machinery other than railways; and the forms, dimensions and arrangement of its parts may be changed without departing from the spirit thereof.

What I claim is:

l. In a structure of the class described, the combination with a railway car, of a receptacle having an inlet passageway for air in one of its end portions and an inlet and a delivery outlet passageway for lubricants both at its other end portion and disposed on a truck frame of said railway car; a piston disposed within said receptacle and adapted to be movable between opposite end portions thereof; a helical compression spring disposed within said receptacle to extend between said piston and the delivery outlet end of said receptacle; an outlet check-valve connected to said delivery outlet passageway; a delivery nozzle connected with said outlet check-valve and disposed to adapt it to deposit a lubricant on to a desired part of said railway car; an inlet check-valve connected to said inlet passageway for lubricants; a container for lubricants; a conduit for lubricants connecting said container with said inlet check-valve; a valve-controlled conduit for compressed air connected with said inlet passageway of said receptacle, and a source of compressed air connected with said conduit.

2. In a structure of the class described, the combination with a railway car, of a receptacle having an inlet passageway for air in one of its end portions and an inlet and a delivery outlet passageway for lubricants bothat its other end portion and disposed on a truck frame of said railway car; a piston disposed within said receptacle and adapted to be movable between opposite end portions thereof; a helical compression spring disposed within said receptacle to extend between said piston and the delivery outlet end of said receptacle; an outlet checkvalve connected to said delivery outlet passageway; a delivery nozzle connected with said outlet check-valve and disposed to adapt it to deposit a lubricant on to a desired part of said railway car; an inlet check-valve connected to said inlet passageway for lubricants; a containerl for lubricants; a conduit for lubricants connecting said container with said inlet checkvalve; a tank adapted to be charged with compressed air and attached to the body of said railway car; a three-way valve provided with a hand lever and disposed to be readily accessible to the operator of said car; a conduit pipe disposed to connect said tank with said three-way valve; and a conduit for compressed air disposed to connect said three-way valve with said air inlet passageway of said receptacle.

In witness whereof I hereunto subscribe my name this twentyninth day of March, A. D. 1915.

ARCHIBALD FLANIGAN.

Witnesses:

O. JOHNSON, A. HAsKINs. 

